Planning application for new Cork hospital to be submitted on Monday

First proposed by the Department of Health in 2023, the Glanmire hospital project was delayed over concerns over inadequate local road infrastructure.

Buildings on the grounds of St. Stephen's Hospital, Sarsfield's Court, Glanmire, Cork.

A planning application for the long-awaited elective hospital for Cork is to be lodged on Monday, days after agreement was reached with landowners to allow for a new access road to be built. 

In 2023, the Department of Health announced plans to locate the facility in the old St Stephen’s Hospital campus in Glanmire.

Concern that local road infrastructure would be insufficient for either the construction phase or the completed hospital had proven a stumbling block to the development, however.

That impediment was overcome this week when agreement was reached with landowners, and a planning application is to be lodged with Cork City Council on Monday.

The proposed four-storey hospital will include nine day-case theatres, 10 minor operation rooms, and seven endoscopy suites, with a total floor area of 16,243sq m.

Once operational, the elective treatment centre will provide more than 68,500 patient procedures annually.

Access to the new hospital will be via a proposed new access road linking the R639 and the L2973.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he and local Fianna Fáil TD Pádraig O’Sullivan had been working with the city council and landowners to help resolve issues relating to the road infrastructure.

“A new elective care treatment centre will be transformative for the region, and will take a lot of pressure off of the trauma centre, which is CUH [Cork University Hospital],” he said.

Mr Martin said he was hopeful that, “all going well”, there could be a planning decision as early as June 2027.

“When I came into government in 2020, I was determined to get this off the ground,” he said.

“CUH is the major trauma hospital in the region, and very often people had operations postponed when A&E was crowded or during periods where people needed acute treatments, so a need for an elective centre was always identified.

“Now, the surgical hub that we opened there last week is a very significant step forward, but the actual elective hospital in Glanmire will be a transformative moment.” 

Mr Martin added that he believed the presence of the new hospital would help facilitate the expansion of Cork City’s northside.

Last year, Derek Tierney — now the secretary general at the Department of Health — said the plan was to have the site “up to shovel-ready status” within five years by 2030.

Asked whether he hoped that would happen by 2030, the Taoiseach said he would like it done sooner.